DW Foamies BAF Yak 48"

I finally went ahead and got one of the DW Foamies 48" Yak 54. Going to run my Turnigy 35-42C 1100kv motor in it with a 40A Turnigy ESC and either an APC 11x5.5E or 12x6E prop. Probably try to pick up some 1800mAh 3S1P Lipo's for light flight, but 2200mAh will be normal. Want to also try 4S 2200mAh. Went with 4 hitec HS-65HB servos, which are a little spendy, but not as much as the metal gear ones. I'll keep this section updated with the build thread. Final AUW with landing gear and no battery is 26oz. Including the 2650mAh 3S1P Lipo, it is 34oz. The 4S1P lipo is slightly lighter by half an ounce.


Update 2/7/10: Finished the build and couldn't stand it anymore. It has begun blowing more and more all day. The plane wants to hover just below 2/3rds throttle and it buffets the tail pretty good from the air over the APC 11x5.5E prop. I need to put my Eagle Tree eLogger v3 on it to check currents and power (see below), but seems good. I maidened it inspite of the wind. It feels heavy. I may have to try the 2200mAh lipos. Also may need to move the wings to the center slot (they are all the way back right now). Flew straight and pretty well behaved with only a couple clicks of trim. Wind was really gusting, but it was well behaved (seemed to have some tip stall when trying to do elevators with no power). I'll have to try it without the wind.

Update (2/8/10):Peak power is 456W, but sustained is ~420W on 3S1P with the 11x5.5E prop and ~35A draw. Something seems wrong with the 4S1P, though, because peak power was 451W (sustained around 420W again) with peak current at 32A and sustained around 28A. Motor also seemed slugish to respond going to full power from 1/8th throttle. I may need to play with timings.




Original packaging from DW Foamies came in super trashed. Most of the contents were ok, but had a couple of the parts creased and dented when looked a little closer. Mike from DW Foamies was super to work with and got me replacement parts out very quick!

Showing some of the damage on the spare sheets of 9mm depron.

Wings pinned and doing the aileron hinges. This is after doing the 45' bevel on the aileron surface and 15' bevel on the wing mating for some good throws. I sort of messed up here, as I had been wanting to try the welders glue hinge trick, but turns out the welders eats some of the depron. It wasn't bad, but it did gap a little on the really thin parts of the bevel. Hinge is good and strong, though, and I don't think it is going to be a problem, just more superficial than anything.

Close ups of the gap that formed from the glue.

Another close up. I think doing the welders glue on EPP would be great and I'll probably try it on my Piaget next time, but will just do the blenderm tape if I were ever to do this depron again.

Left wing with aileron hinge taped over the welders (probably didn't need to do this) and the spare CA'ed in and taped over with blenderm. Also shows the color tape that I'm planning to do. There is a great thread on RCGroups.com that covers doing this, including some tricks for the checker board.

Picture of how you start out with the checker pattern.

The fuselage with some of the spare checkers from the wing to be used on the vertical stab.

Picture with all the checkers finished.

Final pics of the scheme with the left side red stripe and all the vinyl decals. Yes, I screwed up the "YAK ATTACK" decal (put it on facing the wrong way, AND it gets covered by the horizontal part of the fuse too...sigh).

Final scheme test fit together before gluing. The vinyl really adds some good lines and looks great.

Another picture before gluing from the left side. Hopefully the red will add some good contrast when I'm practicing my rolling harriers. The bottom is all plane white.

Getting the servos mounted and setting the throws.
More pictures of the rear servos.

Left side routing of the servo wires from the rear (including 9" extensions), which were hot-glued to secure them. Turnigy Sentry 40A ESC also pictured.

Putting the Turnigy 3542C 1100kv motor mount on (total motor and hardware weight was 6.1oz).

Left side of plane bottom while mounting the landing gear.

Right side of plane landing gear. I'm running some 1-3/4" super light 4.5g foam tires.

Everything done and the landing gear on.

ETOC Freestyle

This is just about the coolest indoor 3D flying I've seen. I still want to get a 48" BAF Yak 54 from DWFoamies.com. Not that it is anything like flying below, but it works better for me to fly at the park.

Easy Star ][

Began work on the new FPV airframe (a new grey wing colored Multiplex Easy Star). One thing I really wanted to do, after learning a lot from the first one, was to put the elevator and rudder servos (Hitec HS-81's in this case) embedded in the tail section and to put most of the electronics in the fuselage beneath the wings. This should move the CoG back quite, which was needed for larger 3000+ maH LiPo in addition to the pan/tilt camera pod and to allow a lot more space for in the front hatch and (hopefully) clean up a lot of the massive amounts of wiring with the Eagle Tree Systems OSD Pro, eLogger, GPS, Altimeter, Mic and all the cabling daisy chained from the Rx to the OSD Pro for Return to Home (RtH) operation (sort of like autopilot when you lose radio contact).

First, I got all the parts out and cleared some space on my work table to begin building the Easy Star II.


I began with cutting in the elevator and ruder servo holes into the tail portion of the fuselage.


Next, I began planning the cuts for the hatches in the bottom to open up the belly and cargo area where the bulk of the electronics would be fit as well as the receiver. I decided to keep the two pockets separate, for strength, and opened up two cargo hatches in the bottom.


It takes careful slicing away and matching up and slowly augering out the interior.


I beveled the cuts, so that when I got done, I could glue the pieces I removed together for the hatch cover and so that it would not push into the cavity. I also cut small notches in the cross braces of the center of the fuselage to run the tail mounted servo wires up through.


I also had planned to cut an air scoop in the front to help cool the lipo and electronics (seen here).


Finally, I glued the hatch pieces together, and put packing tape on one side to act like a hinge (after cutting a small finger hole out to make it easy to open). I also cut an exhaust hole to allow the air to push out of from the scoop in the front. Also, glued small rare earth magnets to the bottom of the fuse and the hatch covers so that they snap firmly in place and hold. I was actually very pleased with how strong and positive and seemless the hatches snap back into place.


Next, I began test fitting the OSD, eLogger, altitude sensor, microphone, and all the servo extensions from the OSD to the Rx, as well as the video and audio in/out feeds. I'll also have 2 tempsensors as well as one more batter monitor for the video batt and the GPS connection.


I put labels on the connectors, as it begins to quickly get messy and disorganized, especially once you pull stuff out later to refit. I also found I had to cut out more of the bracing between the bays to allow the OSD Pro to sit snuggly in there and pass all the cabling easily through to the forward bay, where I was placing the Rx.


Finally, with most of the test fitting of the electronics all done, and seeming like it was going to work ok. I went ahead and glued the two fuse halfs together and put the tail feathers on and connected the servos. I always have to trim the rudder up a little, because I don't get as much authority out of the elevator throw if I don't. I'm not planning to do anything with the rudder (a lot of folks put a larger one on for more turn authority, but with the aileron mod I'm planning, I never found a great need for more rudder control before). I am disappointed, however, after all these years, that they have not gone with a longer portion of the vertical stab being rudder (and making it about twice as deep on the surface).


Next was the motor and ESC. I had problems last time with the motor twisting in the motor mount, so I just put a drop of CA on the 3 points that touch the motor from the foam to hold it. I also cut a slight flat spot on the top to put the velcro that holds the ESC and cut a channel down the pod face for the wires to fit in with the canopy and/or the easy camera pod on.


While I still have to build the camera pod, put all the electronics in and get the aileron mods cut (as well as the GPS mounted in the wing), went ahead and got the wings finished, as well as magnets at the wing butt to hold them together (this really helped the old one, as the wing jig-saw fit gets loose after time). Also got the cockpit setup with just a tab at the front and rare earth magnets at the back, so either the canopy or the easy camera pod can fit on.


After putting the Rx, motor, 2600mAh 3S1P Lipo, and all the stuff for "basic" flight in, the CG is about half an inch too far to the back, even with the lipo all the way toward the front. Should be perfect once everything is in. AUW in this basic configuration is 26oz.


I am planning on putting some small wooden dowl/rods down the sides where the push rods were suppose to go (not carbon fiber rods, as those steal precious RF signal). I'm also not sure if I will try to fill in the original servo placement holes or not.


Update (1/10/2010): Took it out for a windy/chilly maiden flight today (using the old wings, since the ailerons had been all repaired). CG is still a little too far back for basic flight, even with 3300mAh lipo in, but if flew just fine (actually did some pretty nice soaring). I may see how it does with the two 2650mAh 3S1P's in parallel (yes, that is a 3S2P). Flight times would be pretty long (flew over 25 minutes on the 3300mAh).

New Transmitter!

I have been looking at upgrading my Futaba 7CAP for a while. I had been thinking about a 9ch at least, and I wanted to still be able to do 72MHz, since that seems to carry better than 2.4GHz for distance FPV. Settled on a Futaba 9CAP Super, which makes use of plug in modules for all the transmission frequency function. That means, you buy a module for whatever 72MHz channel you want, or they have a TP-FSM synthesized module that allows you to do any channel (this is what I got). The radio was brand new off EBay, and came with an R149DP 9ch Rx (PCM dual conversion 72MHz). I also bought a cheap $30 combo Tx/Rx module that works with it off Ebay for 2.4GHz too. May just buy a Spektrum 2.4GHz system that works with it too.

Cost of FPV?

So, figured I would compile a list of the current best things for a complete FPV setup (including twin video reciever with diversity switching, head tracking, On Screen Display, and with the new low cost of telemetry tracking). This doesn't include S&H or a bunch of the small cables and costs there, or backup/replacement servos, props, multiple batteries, a camcorder to record your flights, etc. This sets up with 900MHz as the basis for Video transmission and 72MHz R/C control (other option is 2.5GHz, but this attenuates faster, so distance is reduced for both video and control). This is also based on an Easy Star plane, but cost is similar for other platforms, like a funjet (actually goes up about $100 for twinstar for multiple motors/esc or the easy glider). So, here it goes (oh, and the final bill is right around the $2000 mark, minimum):

Base Station
• 900MHz Video Rx with 3dbi Antenna $60 x2 of these
  
• 900MHz 8dbi Patch Antenna $60
  
• Eagle Tree Systems Eagle Eyes Diversity Switch + Telemetry Tracking $90
  
• Ready Made R/C Antenna Servo tracker $90
  
• 7/9ch Futaba 72MHz Tx (used) $250
  
• Head Tracker Pan/Tilt Gyro $170
  
• Aviator RCV922 Fat Shark Goggles $375
  
• 3300mAh 3S1P 20C LIPO for Base Station Rx/Diversity/Tracker $25
  

FPV
• 900MHz 500mW Video Tx $60
  
• CCD Camera 420p $120
  
• Eagle Tree Systems V3 Data Logger $70
  
• Eagle Tree Systems OSD Pro $80
  
• Eagle Tree Systems GPS Module $80
  
• Eagle Tree Systems Altitude Module $40
  
• Easy Star Pan/Tilt Pod $60
  
• Servos (HS-55) $15 x2
  
• 610mAh 3S1P 20C LIPO for Video Tx/Camera/OSD $6 x2
  

Plane
• Multiplex Easy Star Plane Kit $75
  
• HXT 2835 Inrunner Brushless Motor 2200Kv $20
  
• Turnigy 25A Sentry ESC $15
  
• Servos (HS-55) $15 x4
  
• Corona Synthesized 8ch 72MHz Rx $25
  
• 2500mAh 3S1P 25C LIPO $25 x2
  
• LIPO Balance Charger with A/C adapter $35 + $15
  

Return of the EZ*

Wow...been trying like hell to find a replacement Multiplex EasyStar Kit. They've been back ordered for around 6 months now. Finally found a place in Utah that had them in stock for $60 each, plus S&H, so ordered 2. Merry Christmas to me. ;) Can't wait to get them here to begin some of the mods I had planned (like carving out the inside and putting the servos in the tail to balance out all the stuff I have in the nose for FPV as well as a heavier battery. Probably will just use the existing wings that I have already with the aileron's already in place. Need to decide if I cut out a hatch into the mid-section where the servos use to go, from the bottom to put the electronics all in there. Feels like it would work out better than trying to cram them all in the main compartment, which always made the camera pod not want to fit on very well (and part of the problem the resulted in the crash).

The Dark Side

I just got my Parkzone BF-109 plane. The latest addition to my livery. Hopefully, it will be nice enough this weekend to fly it while I wait for a replacement fuse for my Easy Star. I have been very happy with my T-28, and really would love to get a F4U corsair as well. These foam warbirds from Parkzone are really pretty good planes.

Update: (10/30/2009) I finished getting it all ready tonight, which included getting the CG set for the heavier 2650mAh Turnigy lipo and putting the optional flaps in and getting the Hitec Neutron 6S in and everything trimmed up and all the throws set. Everything I read (plus flying the simulator) says this plane really lands a lot better with the optional flaps. I cut out less flaps from the ailerons than it indicated (about 5" less), just to get more aileron control. If I end up needing more flaps, I'll cut in-board more and try to have that hinge down like I've seen a lot of folks do. I noticed that you could put the gear in backwards, which would have a less forward rake, and make it a lot more unstable. I wonder how many of the folks on the RCGroups boards have put them in backwards that are having so much trouble with nose-over landings? AUW was 39oz with the 2650mAh lipos (about 4oz heavier than the stock 1800mAh lipo). Will try to maiden her tomorrow, if the weather is fitting.

Update: (10/31/2009) Well, went out to maiden the plane today. Ran the eLogger in it and triple checked the throws and CoG. Things worked fine and seemed right. Throttled up slowly and was ready with right rudder/aileron for the tendancy on this plane to twist/torque roll left. It did want to do that, but compensated fine for it and I was in the air. Needed some minor aileron and elevator trim and got it coming in nice and slow, and seems nice and flat. It wanted to roll left with full throttle compared to slow trim, but probably just the fact of the torque. Rolls were AWESOME with this plane. It actually keeps a very nice straight line through the very responsive roll. Flew about 5 minutes trying some minor turns and approaches, and it was great. Then decided to try a loop. Bad idea. It pulled a tight loop and immediately flipped over on its back and twisted and I think the elevator (at least one side) stuck in full up position. Flipped and rolled and couldn't recover it at all. Full speed nose into the ground. Poof! Well, wing is fine. Prop is toast, as is the spinner. Sheared the fuse in 2 places and the canopy was broken. Think it will be pretty easily glued. Have to look closer to the control rods to figure out what went wrong. Nothing seemed wrong with the full throws I had on it when checking on the ground, but something sure died. Bummer.






Update: (10/31/2009)Well, figured out the problem.

EVERYONE CHECK YOUR CONTROL HORNS BEFORE FIRST FLIGHT!!!!!

I got everything glued back together and back in shape. No one had a spinner or cowl, and I got lucky and got the one and only 3-blade prop at one store. So, triple checked everything (throws and control rods were all tight) and while the body is a bit weak/flexed in the center where the canopy fits, it all looks mostly pretty good. Considering.





Anyway, it was still pretty nice and calm out (though cloudy/overcast, which makes the orientation on this plane really hard to pick out). So, I ran out real quick to fly before the little ones have to go trick-n-treating. :)

Took off, and the CoG was a little back, because of the missing spinner, I think, but it was flyable. Just really touchy (you know how bad flight characteristics get when you are tail heavy, slow flight is ugly). But, keep the speed up and it can compensate, just not great trim for various speeds.

Anyway, got it way up, and tried another full elevator loop. Damn thing snap rolls to the right. I don't mean tip stall, it is a full aileron snap roll. OK, recover with subtle elevator control. Bring it in and land. Great landing (the flaps really help a lot). Check how throws look. Good. Body isn't twisting or anything. Lets triple check PMix's. Hum...well, I have flaperon's from my T28 pgm I copied on, but it doesn't do anything with the dial at dead center (BAD to use dial since I'm Y-connected into ch4), ok, turn that off. Hum, I also have a 5% flaperon mix for elevator. OK, that might be it, since enabling the flaps actually just makes the ailerons turn with the Y-connector. OK, turn that off, but before I do, just watch real close. Hum, full up elevator and the ailerons can't even hardly be seen to move, but they are maybe 1mm at max elevator. Ok, lets give it a shot!

Moved CoG forward by pushing battery all the way up. Take off and it is MUCH better behaved for slow flight. OK, get up high and try full elevator loop again. Damn! Same thing, snap roll hard to the right. Try with power off and on, no difference. Watch it close and can't see that the tail is really flexing or anything. At this point, I'm not sure what is going on, but if it looks ok on the ground on the throws, it must be tail flex or something. Finished off the battery and tried an outside loop. Hum...interesting. It snap rolls to the left on outside loops. Sure seems like an elevator PMix, but.

As a final check when I bring it in (another good landing and roll out...make SURE you guys are bending the landing gear out infront of the LE of the wing each time...mine tends to bend back after landings in the rough field and on pavement), I try full up elevator sitting on the ground and start pushing on the control surfaces. DAMN IT! the left elevator can be pushed straight level without much pressure. Start looking closer, and the control horn is super loose. Tighten it down a LOT more, and now it is pretty snug, but it still doesn't look like it has great wide leverage with the pretty small surface area and the foam is pretty smooshy right there. I think I need to CA glue it to get some rigidity. But that is 100% the problem and cause of my maiden flight crash.

So, everyone, please triple check your control horns. On this elevator design, with two separate control horns, it is EXTREMELY dangerous if both are not tight. On a normal single horn elevator, the worst that would happen is reduced throws and responsiveness. But with twin horns, if one is weak, it will flip your plane. Sigh. Hope this helps someone else.

RIP Easy Star...

Winds were blowing a strong 30mph, with gusts higher. Was periodically blowing over my camera tripod. I wanted to test out my new Oracle Diversity switch and 8dbi patch antenna, and drove 20 miles out into the desert to get away from signal interferance and traffic. I was also trying to fit a new 2600mAh lipo in. It didn't fit well. Got it hand launched, despite the wind trying to rip it out of my hands, and the Eagle Tree OSD Pro had come unplugged from the data logger. No GPS or data signal, but was getting video. Got it back around and landed, and got it all plugged back in. But still not fitting well. Wind blowing more. I almost bagged it, as I kept thinking nothing good can come of this... The last few frames of video show what caused the final death dive. Camera pod popped out and was laying back near the motor after I panned the camera right. Lost video shortly after that due to having the patch pointed SE, but I was flying NE of my position by now, due to the wind.

Stripped both the aileron servos, the tilt servo, bent the motor shaft (from hitting the Tx antenna), which bent the Tx connector and broke the decoupling cap to the center lead (repair has been unsuccessful thus far), ripped the berg receiver wire in half, demolished the fuselage and easy pod, and the new lipo is actually accordianed up where it impacted, though seems to be holding a charge and working ok on 3 flights in the T28, now. OK, so the airframe is probably not completely toast, just feels like that when you recover the pieces. Note the GPS ground speed about 2:40 into the video. At this point I'm flying about 90' to the wind direction, but still making about 62mph ground speed. This plane only does ~35-40mph max on level flight full throttle, and I'm still not fully with the wind direction.

Stupid...a lot was rushed and a lot of things not fully working. I pushed and crammed electronics to fit in and taped the pod on. I flew despite feeling like anything could go wrong (video Rx tripod kept blowing over ven with rocks and trying to prop it against stuff. Wasn't keeping the plane SE like I had planed to fly (mostly because of the dang sun and wind blowing). (video)

Oracle Diversity Video Swtich

Got my Oracle Diversity switch in as well as a second 900MHz Rx (which I promptly removed the guts of and put inside the diversity switch hard wired to the power and the Video #2 inputs). Powered it up and hooked everything up (including my previous 2-ch Rx wired into video #1 input). It switches very nice, but I need to probably give it a real test run out in the wild. Just 5 to 20 feet away, it wasn't that interesting (had to remove antennas and stuff to try to block the signal from one or the other). Sure hopes it works as well as I expect it to! Will run my 3dbi omni and the 8dbi patch to see how it works.

Here are some pictures of the ground station with the 8dbi patch mounted on a pretty flimsy pvc pipe. The whole thing wiggles too much (needs a support down below to the neck. And it is a little bit of a PITA to break down very short for transport with the elevated patch. Need to cut the pipe and make it have a 1" coupler that easily just pulls apart. It is windy today, so, probably not going to get out and try it, but maybe tomorrow.

Latest FPV flight #7

Flew yesterday again. Had same servo jitter. So, seems like I fly here by my house and live with servo interferance on 72MHz or fly over at the soccer fields by work and get video interferance on 900MHz. Grin. Managed to get up over 1500ft today, easily. I got new LIPO's in that are 2600mAh that should easily allow over 4000ft AGL. Need to probably go out of town to try that. I would love to fly through some clouds and try that out. Would have tried again today, but I was brewing 11 gallons of my beloved Mossy Cup Porter. So, I only had time to fly my Parkzone T28.

More Stuff

I have some video showing the problem with the Sony DPC 480A AWB and the red hue it has. Turns out, it isn't triggering the DSP to resample on power up without proper amounts of white in the screen. You can force it to trigger/sample by transitioning through the menu settings from fixed->manual->ATW->AWB and it clears everything up. Problem is, it is again hosed the next time you power up. But, setting it to ATW (whatever that is), makes it sample/power up fine everytime. I'm not sure if changing the manual settings to have less red will help where it powers up at or not in AWB mode (probably, but I tried factory resetting it a bunch of times and it was still messed up).

I also went out flying today again with some REALLY dialed back RTH settings. It was WINDY, but we tried it anyway. Unfortunately, something was causing interferance like CRAZY with the video signal. And we couldn't really navigate the menus. But I did bring it in and change settings a couple times and it actually worked better than it has ever worked. It turned it and headed it back toward us, but the problem was, once it got turned back toward us, it tried to turn back and it sort of went into a spiral. I'm more convinced than ever that I need to be able to manually set the turn/pitch limits rather than use the wizard.

FPV Mysteries, Unraveled!

Well, I keep unraveling more and more mysteries as I learn more. First, I have determined that my AUW Multiplex Easy Star with full video equipment and batteries has gained an impressive 11oz, to top out at 37.5oz (that is just over 2 lbs!!!), which leap-frogs it into second place, just behind my Tiger 2 for highest wing loading at 14.5oz/sq-ft. Second, thanks AGAIN to Thomas Black at DPCAV, my red hue problems are because of some "intelligent" feature in the DPC 480A Sony CCD that reverts settings to the manual color values until its DSP triggers AWB to reset every time you power up. More importantly, I can FORCE the resample if I just go into the menu and transition through the menu to Fixed->Manual->ATW->AWB. Viola! Nice cool normal colors! But bummer to have to redo that everytime I power up. Thomas mentioned it might be better to set some manual values or try ATW. Anyway, I flew tonight with the forced menu reset after power up to AWB.

Third, I still haven't found the right video cable for the Myvu goggles (borrowed another friend's camcorder mini-DIN to RCA cable, and it was yet a THIRD different one). Hopefully Gordon finds the right one tomorrow so I can FINALLY fly actual FPV without peering at a small 3" diagnal camcorder screen. Fourth, when you live and fly anywhere near a semi-major airport, and you fly FPV, you'd better pay attention to low flying aircraft. I came relatively close to a passing Horizon Airlines Bombardier Q400 on final approach tonight (close being half a mile or more at the closest). I'm still not sure if I show up on radar or not, but it explains why I suddenly was getting a lot of video interference and getting servo glitches (maybe?). I'm not in the direct flight path, and I'm outside the resticted area, I think, and I'm intentionally keeping the plane away from any obvious other traffic, but, probably need to find somewhere else to fly fpv. Fifth, I switched my RTH turn over to the rudder to maybe make it less "roll-sensitive", and it did help, but because I couldn't use the goggles, I couldn't read any of the menus and change any of the settings while using the RTH. So, it still ended up rolling clear over into a death spiral, eventually, but it did turn toward me and drop altitude. I need to adjust the proportional gains down and see how it works. Sixth, while this isn't FPV, and the mystery isn't "unraveled", I just wanted to comment, for the record, that Windows Movie maker SUCKS. It crashes at every chance possible (usually just after a lot of editing but before the automated save). Sigh.

Last thing, is it seems like the next big thing I need to tackle/work on, is proper RTH operation. Here is a good description of PID control, and how to best set up the proportional, integral, and derivative gains. Specifically, starting with proportional ONLY (zero the gains on Integral and Derivative), and increasing it until it oscillates, then drop the value in half, and add in integral to get the desired worst case turn completion, followed by adding in derivative to avoid over shoot. Honestly, I think derivative gain is going to have to be dang low, given how slow/variable the GPS reads can be.

FPV with OSD

Went out to fly with the fully integrated OSD Pro and eLogger v3 this morning. Had 3 major problems. First, the weight was too far forward in the plane and caused an immediate nose-in on first launch. This caused a second problem, which was I stripped the tilt servo on the camera, so it was locked in place. Third problem was again with the video goggles (no video out and it refused to function AGAIN). I suspect having the cable partly out of the socket doesn't help, and I need to get the right cable from Gordon (sigh...I really want to fly first person). Also looks like the TempA sensor was not properly zeroed or something. I managed to download the data from the eLogger to the computer and get GPS locations and plots.

The motor lipo was again very puffy, and never saw much over 20A on the logger, and these are 20-30C 2200mAh, so should be good for peaks up to 40A. Seems like one cell is really suffering and I'm not getting full charge out of the packs. I may have damaged these at one point in some of the other planes. One more good reason to begin flying with at least an elogger in the plane to evaluate max/average current draw. I also was unable to engage the RTH function for some reason. It should have been setup properly last night, but it didn't engage when switching off the Tx. Have to play with that more. It was impossible to really navigate the displays from the LCD on the camcorder, so couldn't really do much. Need to order some new LIPOs from Hobby City.

I also really have to figure out my camera exposure settings. Too much red. I'm really not happy with the display I'm getting. Need to get some ferrite coils to try to clean up some of the interference too. I tried to get the RtH (Return to Home) feature to work, but it appears that while I went through the safety menu and set everything up, I failed to enable RtH mode. LOL. Spent some time tonight getting the bum striped servo swapped out and resetting a lot of the features on the OSD. I need to get the right cable for the glasses.

Oh, and if you haven't seen this video of two guys flying out 4000m and back. Pretty cool. Notice the long radio wire antenna he is dragging about 49s into the video.

Multiplex Easy Star FPV Flight with OSD from Jeff McClain on Vimeo.

Local Video [169 MB]

First FPV Flight

Flew my first FPV flight today. Well, it probably wasn't really FPV, since the goggles battery supply died about 3 minutes after turning them on. I had to just fly it visually, but I did do some by watching the video camera display. This was without the elogger and OSD, just to make sure everything was working ok. I am getting some interferance, and it really panics me when I'm flying remote watching the first person view and it wacks out. I have no idea where the plane is (invariably, it was always higher than I expected trying to find it in the sky). Wow, it can get a long way away quick just flying via the video feed. I may have to take it out away from the city and see if that helps the reception. I have some torrid coils coming to wrap some of the electric feeds for the ESC and the video.

The camera pan/tilt seems to work well. It is very nice looking down at the nose and tilting over to look at the wings. I think a little more tilt down will be good on the 3-pos switch. I'll try to get the OSD and logger hooked in tomorrow and try it again. The motor batteries were super warm and puffy (again!!!????) after the flight. I think 610mAh for the video camera and tx is pretty good, and should give me almost 30-45 minutes, on full charge. But I may try to get some 800mAh as well. Also need to get all up weight (AUW) on this (it use to be 26oz before the FPV stuff).

First FPV Flight from Jeff McClain on Vimeo.

Here is the local video: First FPV Video [183MB]

Gyro Stabilization

I have read a lot about people putting gyro stabilizers on airplanes to correct erratic behavior and wind buffeting. Seems like a natural inclusion for FPV to stabilize the video. Anyway, ideally, you want one that ONLY engages when you flip a switch (meaning you need a secondary channel) or disengages when you get past say 1/3 joystick movement (again, still needs a secondary channel and pmixing). Most of the folks are using GY401's from Futaba, are a bit spendy (at almost $140 each axis), but they have the dual gain you need to disengage and everything. I may consider trying one of the E-Flight 11g dual gain gyros at around $65. DPCAV also has one for around $25, which I will probalby order. I think you would put it on the ailerons for fpv, but you would risk the RTH feature of the OSD not working if it was engaged when you lost control...grin.

Flight of the Phoenix!

Well, I've been trying to fly my Carl Goldberg Tiger 2 electric conversion for a while now, but keep finding reasons not to. For one thing, it is a 5lb model with a 61" wingspan and capable of speeds over 80mph. That isn't something you just take to your local playground park. I went out to the local flying club last weekend, despite a strong 10-15mph wind. There were a ton of folks out there having a fun fly. I watched for a while and asked about what it took to join and stuff. $60 AMA membership dues and $60 for BARKS fees and runway costs. Don't get me wrong, it is probably all worth it (they have a great runway and good pits, despite my not liking to have to try to dead stick in all the sagebrush out there), but I just don't have much time to fly the big models, and mostly the park fliers work great right here by my house.

Anyway, I FINALLY decided to try it again today. Went for a pretty long mountain bike ride this morning, and the weather was very nice and calm (of course). Wind came up this afternoon and I got tired of waiting for it to maybe let up. So, about 5PM, I headed out to give it a shot, again, despite the 10-15mph gusts. I had a 4S1P and 5S1P lipo, each 3000mAh and I've given up on the Hitec Mini 6S rx's that are SC, and have a Neutron 6S in everything now. Got to a local soccer field that was currently empty and assembled the craft. Checked all the surfaces one last time and gave it some gas. As a tail dragger, this wants to lift the tail and push over in tall grass, but if I just give it full up elevator and hit the throttle, it pulls through very nice. ROG was VERY fast with the 5S lipo. Got it up and behavior was very nice and fairly balanced right out. Just needed a little right rudder trim.

Took it through some slow turns, a loop, tried some inverted flight and waterfalls, everything checked out. Did a snap roll, and WOW, completed 1 and three quarters before I could stop. Very responsive snaps. Roll isn't as commanding as I would like, but it isn't bad (need to work on the binding and throws more). The rudder really doesn't command it like I expected it too, despite it having pretty good surface area. I need to look at that more. This thing will got straight vertical and keep on climbing with the 5S and 12x8 Master Airscrew. Looking at the power charts for this Turnigy AerodriveXP 35-48 900kV outrunner, I had forgot that I was going to swap to a 12x6 (I already got it and everything) to dial the current back a little. Well, about 8 minutes into the flight, the 5S 3000mAh lipo was done. And I had been doing mostly half throttle and coasting in the down draft with only limited bursts of full throttle. WOW. That shocked me. It died so fast that I didn't even have any warning to bring it around for a full landing sweep and pretty much turned it dead stick and got it lined up for a quick feathered landing. It settled great and rolled out nice.

Popped the lid off the front hatch and it was H-O-T. The motor was pretty warm too, but not sizzling, nor was the ESC. But the battery was puffy and very hot (uh-oh). I definately need to get the smaller pitch prop. 60A is right at the 20C limit of those 3A lipos. I'm still shocked at the time and how hot it was. I need to cut some air exhaust holes in the aft part of the fuse to allow air to flow. I'm guessing nothing goes through because it is a dead space. That should help.

Let everything cool for 5 minutes and then put the 4S lipo in. Ran the motor up a little and just let it feather at quarter throttle to fan some air. Checked controls again and throttled up. Little longer run up, but not much. This thing leaps in the air. Played a little more, keeping an eye on the time and being a lot more conservative on the power. It ran up past 11 minutes before it started showing laggard response and I brought it right in. Perfectly well behaved landing again and again, the lipo was a bit puffy and pretty warm.

Overall, this plane is very fun. Flies inverted VERY well with the fully symetrical wings and the CoG seems just about right and it will elevator in fairly stable. Just a couple changes (prop and air vents) and I think the next outing will be great. Though, any one that you don't wreck is a great one. LOL.





Update (9/29/2009):I’m sure I’m getting like 4x more power than my easy star (actually, charts for this new motor with that prop shows almost 6x the “thrust” of the easy star). Yes, the plane is that much heavier. It is just under 5lbs with motor, and lipo AUW. Thrust with 5S1P lipo is just under 3000g (or 6.6lbs) and burns through >950W. And it can go straight up pure vertical and accelerate. LMAO. The inrunner in my easy star is max 250W motor (but cranking out almost 400W at max with that 5.5x4.5 prop I have, which is probably why I keep melting wires on it, LOL).

Some pretty cool FPV video from Sweden

This guy has some beautiful transmission video. I have no idea how he can get that clear of a picture and clean transmission, but I think I'm beginning to see the value in a flat 9db patch antenna. I suspect I will need the signal tracker to properly keep it focused on the plane at only a 15 degree horizontal/vertical window. The alternative is to get an expensive diversity switch that allows you to multiplex in two separate receivers with two different antenna. That begins to get expensive, though.

He got pretty high up and when he popped out back down below the clouds, realized he had blown out over the ocean…and was out of battery. Some of the BEST FPV video feed (distortion free and very clear) that I’ve seen out there via transmission. Watch him trying to get back to shore. While watching I couldn’t believe he kept pushing those 3S lipos like he did, even before beginning his return. Lowest recommended voltage on the lipos is 3.2-3.3v per cell, and they are dead/ruined at 2.8v. This guy had 3S, and was below 9v and still going (scary). That is where they begin to smoke and get very hot (plus the drop on voltage once you get below 3.2v is insane fast). That video is ALSO why I’m 100% planning to run separate battery for the camera/tx/OSD/elogger. Should be good with just a 600-900mAh 3S?

EZ* Pod Camera

I got the camera pod for the easy star all built. It has the servos for moving the camera all installed, place for a 650mAh 3S1P lipo (for the camera/tx) and I'm trying to figure out the best routing for the servo wires, camera wires and the rx. Uggghhh, don't even want to think about how this is all going to route when I get the elogger/OSD and sensors all in there. Need some double-sided servo tape for the camera and tx and some torrid coils for the camera wires. I think I'm going to try to put the GPS rx back the very end of the tail on the top of the fuse for best reception and most distance from the 900MHz tx. I figured out a motor mount for the obliterated EZ* I have (simple 2.5" angle bracket epoxyed into the old motor pod (which should help with the heat that was building up before in the foam enclosure and allowing the motor to torque and twist and melting the plastic). The mount is also a little further up/away from the fuse and will allow me to use a 6x4E prop with plenty of clearance. Then I'll transfer everything over to the new kit I have coming once I play with it in this reglued frankenstein I have now.








Video of pan/tilt working

WARNING!!!! FPV initiated.

I took the plunge and ordered an FPV system. I got it from Digital Products Co in Folsom. Thomas Black is super on support and I would highly recommend ordering a system from him. I got a 480p Super HAD CCD camera and am transmitting with 500mW over 900MHz with a dual A/V output reciever and got the Eagle Tree Systems data logger and OSD Pro (for on screen display of data) with GPS and return to home features. Added altimeter and temp sensors. The eLogger seems to be dead, so I'm sending that back to have Thomas check it out. Hopefully I get it back soon to try everything out. I was having problems getting the camera to show anything but B&W, but it looks like it was falling back into B&W because of low light conditions. Once I got enough illumination (especially sunny outdoors I think it will be very good), it cleared up. Colors are a little off, and I need to play with the automatic gain control (AGC) and white balance (AWB). I think when flying everyone recommends turning some of that off, so that flying into the sun doesn't adjust and make everything else visibile go dark.


Here is video showing off the Eagle Tree System eLogger and OSD Pro from a great videographer, Crash9.

FPV EasyStar over the Grand Canyon from Crash9 on Vimeo.

Oh, and on a side note, here is a pretty cool video showing HD video (gyro stabilized) of the Grand Canyon. I think, if you were going to do this big, you would set up this sort of a camera on the FPV in HD (no broadcast) to film your flight.

Flight Sim Neglect

Well, I have packed up my triple display monitors, touch screens and flight controls to make my desk more useable (it always was just a prototype setup to test out stuff). Did that last December, and I'm REALLY getting pangs of wanting to get back to flying. But I'm not going to do it at my desk. The setup is too chaotic and temporary. I need to figure out if I can build a small cockpit enclosure and get stuff put in. When? I don't know...but I sure would like to get back to flying.

More later.